TOKYO — Amid growing dissatisfaction with the slow pace of recovery, Japan marked the second anniversary Monday of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing and has displaced more than 300,000.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the government intends to make “visible” reconstruction progress and accelerate resettlement of those left homeless by streamlining legal and administrative procedures many blame for the delays.

“I pray that the peaceful lives of those affected can resume as soon as possible,” Emperor Akihito said at a somber memorial service at Tokyo’s National Theater.

Athit Perawongmetha / Getty Images The grounded No.18 Kyotoku Maru fishing boat is illuminated as Japan commemorates the victims of the 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2013 in Kesennuma, Japan. Japan is commemorating the second anniversary of the 2011 Magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that claimed more than 18,000 lives.

At observances in Tokyo and in still barren towns along the northeastern coast, those gathered bowed their heads in a moment of silence marking the moment, at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, when the magnitude 9.0 earthquake — the strongest recorded in Japan’s history — struck off the coast.

Japan has struggled to rebuild communities and to clean up radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, whose reactors melted down after its cooling systems were disabled by the tsunami. The government has yet to devise a new energy strategy – a central issue for its struggling economy with all but two of the country’s nuclear reactors offline.

About half of those displaced are evacuees from areas near the nuclear plant. Hundreds of them filed a lawsuit Monday demanding compensation from the government and the now-defunct plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, for their suffering and losses.

Athit Perawongmetha / Getty ImagesJapanese people pay their respect during a memorial ceremony to commemorate the victims of the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2013 in Kesennuma, Japan. Japan is commemorating the second anniversary of the 2011 Magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that claimed more than 18,000 lives.

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“Two years after the disasters, neither the government nor TEPCO has clearly acknowledged their responsibility, nor have they provided sufficient support to cover the damages,” said Izutaro Managi, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs.

Throughout the disaster zone, the tens of thousands of survivors living in temporary housing are impatient to get resettled, a process that could take up to a decade, officials say.

“What I really want is to once again have a `my home,’ ” said Migaku Suzuki, a 69-year-old farm worker in Rikuzentakata, who lost the house he had just finished building in the disaster. Suzuki also lost a son in the tsunami, which obliterated much of the city.

Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg A Komatsu Ltd. excavator operates in an area damaged by the tsunami following the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, on Monday, March 11, 2013. Two years after a record earthquake devastated Japan's northeast, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has driven the nation's bond risk to levels from before the disaster with a plan that will add to the world's biggest debt burden.

Further south, in Fukushima prefecture, some 160,000 evacuees are uncertain if they will ever be able to return to homes around the nuclear power plant, where the meltdowns in three reactors spewed radiation into the surrounding soil and water.

The lawsuit filed by a group of 800 people in Fukushima demands an apology payment of 50,000 yen ($625) a month for each victim until all radiation from the accident is wiped out, a process that could take decades. Another 900 plan similar cases in Tokyo and elsewhere. Managi said he and fellow lawyers hope to get 10,000 to join the lawsuits.

Evacuees are anxious to return home but worried about the potential, still uncertain risks from exposure to the radiation from the disaster, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986.

Athit Perawongmetha / Getty Images Kesennuma city is seen during a lightshow on March 11, 2013 in Japan. Japan is commemorating the second anniversary of the 2011 Magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that claimed more than 18,000 lives.

While there have been no clear cases of cancer linked to radiation from the plant, the upheaval in people’s lives, uncertainty about the future and long-term health concerns, especially for children, have taken an immense psychological toll on thousands of residents.

“I don’t trust the government on anything related to health anymore,” said Masaaki Watanabe, 42, who fled the nearby town of Minami-Soma and doesn’t plan to return.

Yuko Endo, village chief in Kawauchi, said many residents might not go back if they are kept waiting too long. Restrictions on access are gradually being lifted as workers remove debris and wipe down roofs by hand.

“If I were told to wait for two more years, I might explode,” said Endo, who is determined to revive his town of mostly empty houses and overgrown fields.

Kyodo News / AP Red and white cranes stand by reactors of the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Monday, March 11, 2013. The two-year anniversary Monday of Japan’s devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe is serving to spotlight the stakes of the country’s struggles to clean up radiation, rebuild lost communities and determine new energy and economic strategies.

A change of government late last year has raised hopes that authorities might move more quickly with the cleanup and reconstruction.

Since taking office in late December, Abe has made a point of frequently visiting the disaster zone, promising faster action and plans to raise the long-term reconstruction budget to 25 trillion yen ($262 billion) from 19 trillion yen (about $200 billion).

“We cannot turn away from the harsh reality of the affected areas. The Great East Japan Earthquake still is an ongoing event,” Abe said at the memorial gathering in Tokyo. “Many of those hit by the disaster are still facing uncertainty over their futures.”

The struggles to rebuild and to cope with the nuclear disaster are only the most immediate issues Japan is grappling with as it searches for new drivers for growth as its export manufacturing lags, its society ages and its huge national debt grows ever bigger.

Athit Perawongmetha / Getty ImagesJapanese Buddhist monks chant and pray in front of the remaining structure of a former disaster center to commemorate the second anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami on March 11, 2013 in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.

Those broader issues are also hindering the reconstruction. Towns want to rebuild, but they face the stark reality of dwindling, aging populations that are shrinking further as residents give up on ever finding new jobs. The tsunami and nuclear crisis devastated local fish processing and tourism industries, accelerating a decline that began decades before.

Meanwhile, the costly decommissioning the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant could take 40 years as its operator works on finding and removing melted nuclear fuel from inside, disposing the spent fuel rods and treating the many tons of contaminated wastewater used to cool the reactors.

Following the Fukushima disaster, Japan’s 50 still viable nuclear reactors were shut down for regular inspections and then for special tests to check their disaster preparedness. Two were restarted last summer to help meet power shortages, but most Japanese remain opposed to restarting more plants.

The government, though, looks likely to back away from a decision to phase out nuclear power by the 2030s. Abe says it may take a decade to decide on what Japan’s energy mix should be.

Associated Press writers Malcolm Foster and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Emily Wang in Kesennuma, Japan, contributed to this report.

TOKYO — A tsunami hit Japan’s northeastern coastline on Wednesday, officials said, after a strong earthquake rocked the region almost exactly a year on from the country’s worst post-war natural disaster.

A 6.9-magtinude quake struck 26.6 kilometres below the seabed off the northern island of Hokkaido in the Pacific at 6:08 pm local time, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

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It was followed by a 20 centimetre tsunami which had prompted local authorities to issue an evacuation warning for coastal residents before it hit land.

REUTERS/Issei KatoAn official of the Japan Meteorological Agency speaks next to a screen showing Wednesday's magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Tokyo Wednesday.

This was followed by a moderately strong 5.7 earthquake near Tokyo, which left residents on edge.

High-speed bullet trains serving northern Japan were halted and the two runways at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport were closed after the quake.

No abnormalities were reported at the Tokai No.2 nuclear power plant northeast of Tokyo, which has been shut for routine maintenance, or at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi and Daini plants, local media said.

The waves hit several locations in Hokkaido as well as Aomori prefecture, which was one of the areas in Japan’s northeast devastated by last year’s disaster.

The Japanese meteorological agency had initially said a tsunami could be as high as 50 centimetres, but U.S. monitors said there was no Pacific-wide tsunami threat.

(The video embedded below shows amateur footage of the quake. Note, there is some adult language near the end of the clip)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8j5SWFdpQg&w=640&h=390]

The initial quake was followed by several powerful aftershocks in the same vicinity, including one with a magnitude of 6.1, but there was no tsunami warning.

Almost three hours after the first quake, a 5.7-magnitude shock struck 90 kilometres east of Tokyo, USGS said. Japanese officials said there was no fear of a tsunami “although sea levels may change slightly in a few hours”.

The quakes come after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a monster wave on March 11 last year that killed more than 19,000 people and crippled Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant.

The tsunami swamped cooling systems at the Fukushima site and sent three reactors into meltdown, spewing radiation into the environment and sparking the world’s worst atomic accident in a generation.

REUTERS/Kim Kyung-HoonA score board shows an earthquake alert after an Asian qualifying soccer match between Japan and Bahrain for the 2012 London Olympics Games at a soccer stadium in Tokyo March 14, 2012.

There were no immediate reports of damage at nuclear facilities in the area affected by Wednesday’s quake.

A spokesman for Tohoku Electric Power, which operates two nuclear power plants in the country’s northeast, said the facilities were unaffected.

“We have not monitored any change in radiation levels around the facilities following the quake,” he said.

The meteorological agency had also warned the tsunami could reach the Kuril islands, off Hokkaido, which Russia has controlled since Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II.

On Sunday, Japan fell silent to remember last year’s tragedy, with tearful families gathering in towns and villages across the country’s shattered northeast to remember those they lost when the towering waves smashed ashore.

Tens of thousands were forced to evacuate a 20-kilometre exclusion zone immediately around the Fukushima plant, while many families with small children moved away from the prefecture completely.

Sunday’s anniversary also saw thousands protest against nuclear power in demonstrations across the world.

Japan has temporarily shut most of its 54 commercial nuclear reactors, but plans to re-open the plants has set off a highly-charged debate in a country prone to earthquakes.

On Monday, a group of Japanese citizens filed a lawsuit to prevent the restart of a nuclear power plant, warning that there was little proof the reactors would were quake-resistant.

The disaster also hammered Japan’s already struggling economy, stoked fears about radioactive contamination in the food chain and set off multi-billion dollar reconstruction efforts.

There has been a five-fold increase in the number of quakes in the Tokyo metropolitan area since the year-ago disaster, the Tokyo University Earthquake Research Institute has said.

OFUNATO, Japan – With a minute of silence, tolling bells and prayers, Japan will on Sunday mark the first anniversary of an earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands and set off a nuclear crisis that shattered public trust in atomic power and the nation’s leaders.

A year after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake unleashed a wall of water that hit Japan’s northeastern coast, killing nearly 16,000 and leaving nearly 3,300 unaccounted for, the country is still grappling with the human, economic and political costs.

Along the coast, police and coastguard officers, urged on by families of the missing, still search rivers and shores for remains even though the chances of finding any would appear remote. Without bodies, thousands of people are in a state of emotional and legal limbo.

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Koyu Morishita, 54, lost his 84-year-old father, Tokusaburo, as well as his home and family-run fish factory in the port of Ofunato. Tokusaburo’s body has not been found.

Carlos Barria/ReutersKoyu Morishita, with his dog Muku, takes a moment of silence in front of the grave of his father's grave, who was killed during last year's tsunami.

“I do cry a little bit every once in a while, but my true tears will come later, when I have time,” Morishita said while visiting a memorial for his father at a hilltop temple above Ofunato, accompanied by his dog, Muku.

Like the rest of the country, Ofunato will observe a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. (0546 GMT) when the quake struck and then again, 33 minutes later when a 23-metre (75-foot) wall of water hit the town, killing 340 of its 41,100 residents and leaving 84 missing.

A “bell of hope” will toll and mourners will sail out to sea to release lanterns.

The Japanese people earned the world’s admiration for their composure, discipline and resilience in the face of the disaster while its companies impressed with the speed with which they bounced back, mending torn supply chains.

As a result, the economy looks set to return to pre-disaster levels in coming months with the help of about $230 billlion in rebuilding funds agreed in rare cooperation between the government and the opposition.

“In recent history, Japan seized rapid economic expansion from the ashes and desolation of World War Two, and we built the most energy-efficient economy in the world in the aftermath of the oil shock,” Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said in an article published in the Washington Post.

“On the anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, we remember that today we face a challenge of similar proportions.”

“100 PEOPLE, 100 OPINIONS”

Yet people are increasingly sceptical about whether the political establishment is up to the task.

Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty ImagesPeople hang colourful paper cranes designed as prayers for the souls of victims of the earthquake-tsunami disaster in Minamisanriku, March 10, 2012.

Politicians and bureaucrats drew fire for the chaotic response to the crisis at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant and their failure to seize the moment and tackle a myriad of ills that have dogged Japan for two decades.

“If there are 100 people, there will be 100 opinions,” said Morishita. “We are hoping that someone can lead us and show us hope and dreams. But that doesn’t exist.”

After a brief truce, politicians resumed business as usual: parliamentary squabbles that gave Japan its sixth leader in five years and now threaten to block important tax and welfare reforms and stall progress in dealing with other business.

“There is no leadership,” said Hiroaki Oikawa, 56, another Ofunato resident who lost his two fish factories and his home.

Nine people from three generations of his family now live under one roof in temporary housing. Oikawa resumed operations at one of his factories last September and he is leading efforts to rebuild a shopping arcade.

“There are no politicians to whom we can leave things.”

Andrew Biraj/ReutersMembers of Friends of Japan take part in a candlelight vigil at the University of Dhaka campus, March 10, 2012.

Anti-nuclear demonstrations planned across the country for the anniversary also serve as a reminder that many want bolder action than the government’s preferred scenario of a gradual reduction in reliance on nuclear power.

Not a single community has agreed to restart reactors taken off line since the disaster, meaning all of Japan’s 54 reactors may be shut by the middle of the year.

Slow progress in drawing up plans for the tsunami and radiation tainted region is deepening the misery of survivors, about 326,000 of whom are still homeless, including 80,000 evacuated from the vicinity of the Fukushima plant.

While the government declared the plant’s reactors had reached “cold shutdown” in December, its dismantling and the clean-up of an area the size of Luxembourg will take decades at an incalculable cost using technologies yet to be developed.

Taxpayers, facing proposed sales tax increases to help fund the country’s debt, will need to cough up tens of billions of dollars to prop up Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power — widely attacked for ignoring the possibility of a disaster and for what critics say has been arrogance since.

The Japan earthquake struck at 2:46pm on March 11, 2011, almost one full year ago today. Shortly afterward the Japanese shoreline was stuck by tsunami waves, some as high as 40 metres.

YASUYOSHI CHIBA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a catamaran sightseeing boat washed by the tsunami onto a two-storey tourist home in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture on April 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom).

The country was devastated by the disaster. Almost 16,000 people were killed and almost 3,500 are still missing. It lead to a nuclear plant disaster eclipsed only by the Chernobyl meltdown. The reconstruction will cost the country more than a quarter-trillion dollars. And Japanese officials are still searching for more bodies of those swept away in the disaster.

Yet in the face of this the Japanese people have shown a resolve to rebuilt better and stronger than before. On Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama commented on this:

“We continue to be inspired by the Japanese people, who faced unimaginable loss with extraordinary fortitude. Their resilience and determination to rebuild stronger than before is an example for us all,” Obama said.

With that in mind, we take a look at a series of photos that look at Japan right after the tsunami and earthquake and photos from the same place after clean-up and reconstruction.

DISASTER BY THE NUMBERS

245 — Cost in billions of dollars of the post disaster reconstruction package.

15,846 — Number of dead.

3,320 — People still missing.

2 — Number of missing people found dead this year.

240 — Number of orphans in the three most severely affected prefectures, Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima.

16 — Million tons of disaster waste in Miyagi Prefecture, one of the hardest hit areas of Japan.

2.4 — Drop in millions of tourists to Japan in 2011 from a year previously.

6 — Approximate months lost in the average life expectancy for a Japanese woman following the disasters, down from 86.4 years in 2010 to 85.9 in 2011.

3 — Approximate months lost in the average life expectancy for a Japanese man, down from 79.5 years in 2010 to 79.27 in 2011.

YOMIURI SHIMBNUN/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combo shows a photo of Yuko Sugimoto wrapped with a blanket standing in front of debris looking for her son in the tsunami-hit town of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture on March 13, 2011 (L) and the same housewife standing with her five-year-old son Raito at the same place on January 27, 2012 (R).

NICOLAS ASFOURI/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a tsunami hit area of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 22, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows the view of a tsunami hit area of Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on March 14, 2011 (top) and the same scene as it appears on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows the view of a tsunami hit street in Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on March 14, 2011 (top) and the same scene as it appears on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows the view of a tsunami hit area of Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on March 14, 2011 (L) and on January 15, 2012 (R).

ASFOURI/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a tsunami hit area of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 22, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

KAZUHIRO NOGI/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows local residents walking in a flooded street in a tsunami hit area of Tagajo, Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 12, 2012 (bottom).

TORU YAMANAKA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a catamaran sightseeing boat washed by the tsunami onto a two-storey tourist home in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture on April 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom).

ROSLAN RAHMAN/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a ship called Asia Sympathy run aground by the March 11 tsunami in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, on March 18, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a 10-metre high pine tree in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 29, 2011 (top) and the scene as it appears on January 15, 2012 (bottom). It is the only tree to have survived the tsunami among some 70,000 trees located by the seashore to protect from salt, sand and wind damage.

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows the pavement ruptured by the earthquake in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture on March 11, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 21, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows the view of a tsunami hit area of Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on March 14, 2011 (top) and as the scene appears on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a 10-metre high pine tree in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 29, 2011 (top) and the same scene as it appears on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows the view of a tsunami hit street in Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on March 14, 2011 (top) and on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

NICOLAS ASFOURI/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a tsunami hit area of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 22, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a fishing boat lying amongst the tsunami rubble in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture on March 31, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom).

YASUYOSHI CHIBA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a catamaran sightseeing boat washed by the tsunami onto a two-storey tourist home in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture on April 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom).

KAZUHIRO NOGI/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows people walking on a road covered with vehicles and debris in a tsunami hit area of Tagajo, Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 (L) and the same area on January 12, 2012 (R).

TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows people walking on train tracks littered with cars in Tagajo, Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 (top), following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the same area on January 12, 2012 (bottom).

YASUYOSHI CHIBA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a cherry blossom tree amongst tsunami devastation in the city of Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture on April 20, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom).

KIM JAE-HWAN/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows local residents walking past damaged cars on a street in a tsunami hit area of Tagajo, Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 12, 2012 (bottom).

KIM JAE-HWAN/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows residents crossing a bridge covered with debris in a tsunami hit area of the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture on March 15, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom).

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows people walking on a bridge upon which a boat lies washed up by the tsunami in Hishonomaki, Miyagi prefecture on March 15, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom).

JIJI PRESS/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows people evacuating with small boats down a road flooded by the tsunami in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture on March 12, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom).

FRED DUFOUR/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows debris and damage in the tsunami hit area of Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture on March 18, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 14, 2012 (bottom).

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a boat washed on to a street by the March 11 tsunami in Ishonomaki, Miyagi prefecture on March 15, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom).

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows damage caused by the March 11, 2011 tsunami seen from a hill overlooking the city of Kesennuma on March 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on Janury 14, 2012 (bottom).

MIKE CLARKE/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a rescue worker walking through rubble in the tsunami hit area of Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture on March 18, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 14, 2012 (bottom).

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a survivor walking past rubble and collapsed buildings in Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture on March 18, 2011 (top) following the March 11, 2011 tsunami and the same area on January 14, 2012 (bottom).

KIM JAE-HWAN/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a fishing boat washed up by the March 11, 2011 tsunami onto on a road in the city of Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture on March 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 14, 2012 (bottom).

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows damage caused by the March 11, 2011 tsunami seen from a hill overlooking the city of Kesennuma on March 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on Janury 14, 2012 (bottom).

MIKE CLARKE/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a private plane, cars and debris outside Sendai Airport in Natori, Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 (top) two days after a tsunami hit the region on March 11, 2011 and the same area on January 12, 2012 (bottom).

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows cars piled up in front of the airport control tower in Sendai on March 14, 2011 (L) after a tsunami hit the region on March 11, 2011 and the same area on January 12, 2012 (R).

KAZUHIRO NOGI/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows local residents looking at a tsunami hit area of Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture on March 12, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 11, 2012 (bottom).

JIJI PRESSTORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows people queueing up to buy food at a supermarket in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture on March 14, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom).

TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows residents walking on roads covered with mud and debris in a tsunami hit area of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 14, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom). March 11, 2012 will mark the first anniversary of the massive tsunami that pummelled Japan, claiming more than 19,000 lives. FRANCE OUT AFP PHOTO / TORU YAMANAKA (Photo credit should read TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images)

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The concern stems from a computer model of the crust and mantle lying under northeastern Japan.

Using a technique called seismic tomography, the team analysed data from a vast network of sensors which record waves of energy propelled through the ground by earth tremors.

By noting the type of wave and the time it takes for the wave to travel between sensors, scientists can build a picture of the layers of sub-surface rock, rather like a CAT scan in medicine shows a cross-section of the body.

The study looked at the aftermath of a magnitude 7.0 quake that occurred on April 11 6.4 kilometres (4.06 miles) beneath Iwaki, 60 kilometres (37.5 miles) southwest of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

It was one of the heftiest aftershocks of the 9.0-magnitude March 11 quake and the biggest that was recorded on land.

The picture points to a low-activity fault that was jolted furiously into life by the big quake.

From March 11 to October 27 last year, the carpet of sensors around Iwaki recorded an astonishing 24,108 shocks measuring at least 1.5 magnitude, 23 of them notching up a powerful 5.0 or more.

By comparison, from June 3 2002 to March 11 2011, there was only 1,215 such events.

What set off the Iwaki fault?

The authors, led by Dapeng Zhao, a professor of geophysics at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, believe the answer lies in the Pacific plate of the Earth’s crust.

It is diving under the Okhotsk plate which comprises most of northern Japan.

The friction from this mighty plate “subduction” not only caused the great quake of March 11.

It also increased the temperature and pressure of minerals in the plate, says the paper.

The heat caused watery fluids to be driven off the minerals and rise up to the upper crust.

There, they acted as a sort of lubricant, making it easier for the Iwaki fault to slip.

The seismic tomography also says that after March 11, the Iwaki fault suffered a dramatic change in the direction of stress from the overriding Okhotsk plate.

A shock change in horizontal thrust, helped by the weakening effect of the ascending fluids, are what made this previously untroublesome fault to rip open, they theorise.

The worry is that something similar could happen at Fukushima because it shares a similar subterranean topography, although such an event is impossible to pinpoint in time, they say.

“There are a few active faults in the nuclear power plant area, and our results show the existence of similar structural anomalies under both the Iwaki and the Fukushima Daiichi areas,” Zhao said in a press release.

“Given that a large earthquake occurred in Iwaki not long ago, we think it is possible for a similarly strong earthquake to happen in Fukushima.”

The paper appears in Solid Earth, a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

“Much attention should be paid to (…) seismic safety in the near future” at the nuclear plant, it says.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant was swamped by towering waves that paralysed cooling systems and sent three reactors into meltdown. Radioactive materials leaked into the air, soil and the sea in what was the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl a quarter-century earlier.

Tuesday’s study was published several hours after a 6.0 magnitude earthquake rocked a different fault to the east of Japan’s main island of Honshu. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said the stricken plant remained stable.

Agence France-Presse

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/14/crippled-fukushima-plant-at-high-risk-from-further-quakes-seismologist-computer-model/feed/2stdReactors No. 1 to 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant on March 18.See how Japan has rebuilt in the 11 months since the earthquake and tsunamihttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/09/see-how-japan-has-rebuilt-in-the-11-months-since-the-earthquake-and-tsunami/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/09/see-how-japan-has-rebuilt-in-the-11-months-since-the-earthquake-and-tsunami/#commentsThu, 09 Feb 2012 13:00:25 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=138647

Photos compiled by Zoran Bozicevic and words by Michael Higgins

Japan’s Reconstruction Agency will be inaugurated Friday, almost 11 months after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the country. The agency will streamline the process to help municipalities, set up special reconstruction zones and provide subsidies for disaster-hit local governments.

YASUYOSHI CHIBA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a catamaran sightseeing boat washed by the tsunami onto a two-storey tourist home in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture on April 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom).

245 — Cost in billions of dollars of the post disaster reconstruction package.

15,846 — Number of dead.

3,320 — People still missing.

2 — Number of missing people found dead this year.

240 — Number of orphans in the three most severely affected prefectures, Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima.

16 — Million tons of disaster waste in Miyagi Prefecture, one of the hardest hit areas of Japan.

2.4 — Drop in millions of tourists to Japan in 2011 from a year previously.

6 — Approximate months lost in the average life expectancy for a Japanese woman following the disasters, down from 86.4 years in 2010 to 85.9 in 2011.

3 — Approximate months lost in the average life expectancy for a Japanese man, down from 79.5 years in 2010 to 79.27 in 2011.

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YOMIURI SHIMBNUN/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combo shows a photo of Yuko Sugimoto wrapped with a blanket standing in front of debris looking for her son in the tsunami-hit town of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture on March 13, 2011 (L) and the same housewife standing with her five-year-old son Raito at the same place on January 27, 2012 (R).

NICOLAS ASFOURI/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a tsunami hit area of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 22, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows the view of a tsunami hit area of Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on March 14, 2011 (top) and the same scene as it appears on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows the view of a tsunami hit street in Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on March 14, 2011 (top) and the same scene as it appears on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows the view of a tsunami hit area of Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on March 14, 2011 (L) and on January 15, 2012 (R).

ASFOURI/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a tsunami hit area of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 22, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

KAZUHIRO NOGI/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows local residents walking in a flooded street in a tsunami hit area of Tagajo, Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 12, 2012 (bottom).

TORU YAMANAKA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a catamaran sightseeing boat washed by the tsunami onto a two-storey tourist home in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture on April 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom).

ROSLAN RAHMAN/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a ship called Asia Sympathy run aground by the March 11 tsunami in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, on March 18, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a 10-metre high pine tree in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 29, 2011 (top) and the scene as it appears on January 15, 2012 (bottom). It is the only tree to have survived the tsunami among some 70,000 trees located by the seashore to protect from salt, sand and wind damage.

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows the pavement ruptured by the earthquake in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture on March 11, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 21, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows the view of a tsunami hit area of Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on March 14, 2011 (top) and as the scene appears on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a 10-metre high pine tree in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 29, 2011 (top) and the same scene as it appears on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows the view of a tsunami hit street in Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on March 14, 2011 (top) and on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

NICOLAS ASFOURI/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a tsunami hit area of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 22, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 15, 2012 (bottom).

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a fishing boat lying amongst the tsunami rubble in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture on March 31, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom).

YASUYOSHI CHIBA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a catamaran sightseeing boat washed by the tsunami onto a two-storey tourist home in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture on April 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom).

KAZUHIRO NOGI/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows people walking on a road covered with vehicles and debris in a tsunami hit area of Tagajo, Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 (L) and the same area on January 12, 2012 (R).

TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows people walking on train tracks littered with cars in Tagajo, Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 (top), following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the same area on January 12, 2012 (bottom).

YASUYOSHI CHIBA/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a cherry blossom tree amongst tsunami devastation in the city of Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture on April 20, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 16, 2012 (bottom).

KIM JAE-HWAN/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows local residents walking past damaged cars on a street in a tsunami hit area of Tagajo, Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 12, 2012 (bottom).

KIM JAE-HWAN/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows residents crossing a bridge covered with debris in a tsunami hit area of the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture on March 15, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom).

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows people walking on a bridge upon which a boat lies washed up by the tsunami in Hishonomaki, Miyagi prefecture on March 15, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom).

JIJI PRESS/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows people evacuating with small boats down a road flooded by the tsunami in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture on March 12, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom).

FRED DUFOUR/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows debris and damage in the tsunami hit area of Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture on March 18, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 14, 2012 (bottom).

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a boat washed on to a street by the March 11 tsunami in Ishonomaki, Miyagi prefecture on March 15, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom).

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows damage caused by the March 11, 2011 tsunami seen from a hill overlooking the city of Kesennuma on March 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on Janury 14, 2012 (bottom).

MIKE CLARKE/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a rescue worker walking through rubble in the tsunami hit area of Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture on March 18, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 14, 2012 (bottom).

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a survivor walking past rubble and collapsed buildings in Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture on March 18, 2011 (top) following the March 11, 2011 tsunami and the same area on January 14, 2012 (bottom).

KIM JAE-HWAN/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a fishing boat washed up by the March 11, 2011 tsunami onto on a road in the city of Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture on March 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 14, 2012 (bottom).

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows damage caused by the March 11, 2011 tsunami seen from a hill overlooking the city of Kesennuma on March 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on Janury 14, 2012 (bottom).

MIKE CLARKE/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows a private plane, cars and debris outside Sendai Airport in Natori, Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 (top) two days after a tsunami hit the region on March 11, 2011 and the same area on January 12, 2012 (bottom).

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows cars piled up in front of the airport control tower in Sendai on March 14, 2011 (L) after a tsunami hit the region on March 11, 2011 and the same area on January 12, 2012 (R).

KAZUHIRO NOGI/TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows local residents looking at a tsunami hit area of Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture on March 12, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 11, 2012 (bottom).

JIJI PRESSTORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows people queueing up to buy food at a supermarket in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture on March 14, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom).

TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis combination of pictures shows residents walking on roads covered with mud and debris in a tsunami hit area of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 14, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom). March 11, 2012 will mark the first anniversary of the massive tsunami that pummelled Japan, claiming more than 19,000 lives. FRANCE OUT AFP PHOTO / TORU YAMANAKA (Photo credit should read TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images)

TOKYO — The director of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is stepping down due to illness, the facility’s operator said Monday but it was not clear if his condition is radiation-related.

Masao Yoshida, 56, who has been on site at the plant since Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster, has been hospitalised for “treatment of illness,” a spokeswoman for Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said.

“We cannot give you details of his illness because they are private matters,” Chie Hosoda said. “He is hospitalised where he is able to take time in his convalescence.”

However, there were mixed messages from TEPCO, with senior official Junichi Matsumoto saying according to Jiji Press, “We have heard from doctors that his condition is not related to radiation but it was not a definitive diagnosis.”

Another TEPCO spokeswoman Ai Tanaka told AFP: “We have not yet heard from doctors about any causal relationship to radiation.”

The March disaster knocked out the atomic plant’s cooling system and sent some of its reactors into meltdown, leaking radiation into the air, sea and food chain in the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The plant continues to leak radiation, although TEPCO and the government insist the reactors will all be brought to cold shutdown by the end of the year.

Yoshida, who assumed the post in June last year, said in a message to officials and workers at the plant, “A condition was discovered during a regular medical check the other day.”

“I had no choice but to be hospitalised at very short notice for treatment under doctors’ advice,” said the message released by the operator.

“It breaks my heart to part with you, who have worked together since the earthquake disaster, in this way and I apologise from my heart for causing trouble to you,” he said. “I will focus on my treatment and stay strong so that I can come back to work with you as soon as possible.”

Yoshida is widely seen as a gutsy chief who continued injecting seawater into one of the troubled reactors at the early stages of the crisis, against the company’s orders.

He was reprimanded for the action which later proved to have been justified.

The top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, told reporters: “We will keep a close watch and see to it that this will have no adverse effect on the settlement of the nuclear accident.”

REPLACEMENT

Yoshida is being replaced by Takeshi Takahashi, who was in charge of nuclear power plant operations at TEPCO’s head office in Tokyo, some 220 kilometres southwest of the Fukushima plant.

Yoshida told reporters on November 12 when the plant allowed a group of journalists to visit there for the first time that he endured a frightening ordeal in March.

“In the first week immediately after the accident I thought a few times ’I’m going to die’,” he said.

And when a hydrogen explosion tore apart the buildings around reactors 1 and 3 in the days after the quake, he said: “I thought it was all over.”

Yoshida said there were still hot spots of dangerously high radiation in the compound but that people could be reassured that the reactors were now stabilised.

TEPCO told journalists on the day of the tour, a Saturday, that there were around 1,600 people at the plant, half of the usual weekday number, working to tame the reactors.

The atomic crisis has not in itself claimed any lives but has badly dented the reputation of nuclear power, a key source of energy in resource-poor Japan.

Thousands of people remain evacuated from a large area around the plant, with no indication when the many who left homes and farms in the shadow of the reactors will be able to return.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said the government will spend at least 1 trillion yen ($13-billion) to clean up vast areas contaminated by radiation from the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

“At least 1 trillion yen will be budgeted as we take on the responsibility for decontamination,” Noda said in an interview with public broadcaster NHK on Thursday.

“It is a prerequisite for people to return to their homelands.”

Japan faces the prospect of removing and disposing 29 million cubic meters of soil from a sprawling area in Fukushima, located 240 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, and four nearby prefectures.

The Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in March, has spread radiation that has forced some 80,000 people to leave their homes after the government banned entry within a 20 km radius of the plant.

For decontamination work, the government has so far raised 220 billion yen and plans to allocate a further 250 billion yen in the third extra budget it is set to formalize on Friday, Noda said, adding more would come in the next fiscal year’s budget.

Some experts say the cleanup bill could reach trillions of yen.

Last week, a team of visiting U.N. nuclear experts said Japan should be less conservative in removing radiation.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. nuclear regulator is refining a plan to change its rules for power plants following Japan’s Fukushima disaster, selecting half a dozen high-priority items to tackle first, senior staff said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sorting through how to update its requirements for plants to withstand earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters — a detailed and involved process expected to take years.

The first changes likely will include requiring operators of the country’s 104 reactors to take a new look at the risks posed by earthquakes and floods.

“The full re-analysis that’s proposed … will take some time,” said Amy Cubbage, who was part of an NRC taskforce that compiled a list of changes for U.S. reactors after a quake and tsunami in March overwhelmed the Fukushima Daiichi plant, causing the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.

By Oct. 3, NRC staff will advise the five-member commission on logistics for the changes and how to weave in input from the industry, the public and an advisory committee.

Senior staff discussed the changes with industry and nuclear critics at a public meeting Wednesday.

Seismic risks in the United States were highlighted last week by an earthquake in Virginia that may have shaken Dominion Resources’ North Anna plant more severely than the facility was designed to withstand.

“We need to look and see if we can learn lessons from anything that’s happened, whether it was the earthquake in Japan, or whether it was even the earthquake under Lake Anna,” Timothy Greten, a policy specialist at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said at the NRC meeting.

WITHOUT UNNECESSARY DELAY

NRC staff proposed the agency move forward on ordering upgrades to reactors with designs similar to the Fukushima plant and improvements for pools that store radioactive spent fuel.

The agency thinks the changes can move forward “without unnecessary delay” but gave no more specific timeline.

Other items identified by the NRC’s Fukushima taskforce will need further study in a longer-term review, including its top recommendation to overhaul the “patchwork” of rules and guidelines into a more streamlined regulatory structure.

It will take years for the agency to adjust its regulations and for the industry to implement the changes. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko has urged that the work be complete within five years, which would be an accelerated timetable for the agency.

SEISMIC RISK REVIEW PROPOSED

Separately, the NRC Wednesday said it would require that plants evaluate their seismic risk, part of a process that started years before the Fukushima disaster.

“In view of the potential safety significance of this issue, it is necessary to reexamine the level of conservatism in the determination of original seismic design estimates,” the NRC said in a Federal Register notice.

While there is no “imminent risk” from the design of aging plants, there is higher earthquake hazard in parts of the central and eastern United States than was assumed when they were first designed, the NRC said.

In a business practice that recalled the ritual seppuku suicides of samurai warriors, the president of Japan’s largest power company resigned Friday to assume responsibility for the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

At a nationally televised news conference, Masataka Shimizu bowed deeply in an exhibition of remorse and declared, “I am resigning for having shattered public trust about nuclear power and for having caused so many problems and fears for the people.

“I want to take managerial responsibility and bring a symbolic close.”

But Japan and his company, Tokyo Electric Power Co., may wait decades to witness the end to the worst crisis in the country’s post-war history.

TEPCO is already feeling the pain — in the past three months it lost US$15.3-billion as a result of the continuing nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in the wake of a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami with 15-metre high waves.

At least 15,000 people died after the twin disasters battered the northeastern Tohoku region on March 11. Another 9,506 are still missing and more than 80,000 are homeless, with no idea of when, if ever, they will be allowed to return to their old neighbourhoods.

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The world’s third-largest economy has suffered nearly US$400-billion in damage and been thrust into recession. Japanese manufacturers have been staggered by power shortages and breaks in their supply chains, and are not expected to return to business as usual before the fall.

According to the World Bank, it will take at least five more years just to clean up the mess left by the natural disasters.

But it is the continuing nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima, just 200 kilometres north of Tokyo, that really threatens Japan’s future.

As emergency workers still struggle to control four of the plant’s six nuclear reactors, the Japanese are only now learning just how serious the crisis has been.

Radioactive isotopes have spewed into the air, contaminated the soil and been flushed into the sea, but the threat of even more dangerous exposures remains as nuclear experts try to determine the full extent of the damage.

Radiation levels in the three damaged reactors are so high emergency crews can only spend a few minutes at a time near the buildings. They have been able to enter only two of the damaged structures to restart monitoring equipment.

TEPCO has announced a two-phase plan to resolve the crisis: it hopes to spend three months cooling the damaged reactors and plugging radiation leaks; and another six months putting the reactors into a stable state known as a “cold shutdown.”

If everything goes smoothly, the reactors could reach “cold shutdown” by early next year.

But that timetable depends on how badly damaged the reactors are and how well the company manages to contain thousands of tonnes of contaminated water.

The reactors are being cooled by circulating water that had leaked into the reactor containment vessels or basement areas after it has been cooled with heat exchangers.

The aim is to extract hot water and inject chilled decontaminated water into the chamber containing the reactor fuel rods.

To do this, TEPCO is building tanks to store up to 16,000 tonnes of contaminated water a month.

It has already released 11,500 tonnes of the water into the ocean. Last Saturday, it discovered a further 3,000 tonnes that had apparently leaked from the damaged containment vessel of the No. 1 reactor into underground areas of the reactor building.

Working with and storing so much radioactive water may slow repair work considerably.

Even after TEPCO achieves a cold shutdown, it may take decades to decontaminate the plant.

After the partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island, Pa., nuclear plant in 1979, work to remove the melted fuel from the undamaged pressure vessel did not start until 1985 and took five years to complete. A further three years were needed to remove radioactive contamination from the reactor.

The uncertainty and anxiety surrounding the Fukushima disaster have caused an unprecedented public backlash in Japan, generating protests, tirades on Twitter and YouTube, death threats and displays of defiance.

There is a widespread feeling the government and TEPCO officials did not disclose all they knew during the early days of the crisis and have been less than forthcoming since.

In the first weeks after the earthquake, TEPCO officials received 40,000 complaints a day about the lack of information. Police had to be assigned to guard the company’s offices from anti-nuclear protesters.

This week, TEPCO released documents showing it was dealing with three simultaneous nuclear meltdowns, while reassuring people the fuel rods were safely intact in all the reactors.

“Why did it take two months to get to this point?” demanded a Wednesday editorial in the Nikkei business newspaper.

“Even a rough calculation of conditions inside the reactors would have helped in choosing the best response.”

Public confidence was shaken further when it emerged engineers at Fukushima were so unprepared for the disaster, they had to scavenge flashlights from nearby homes and used car batteries to try to reactivate damaged reactor gauges.

Even now, two months later, only 10% of the plant’s workers have been tested for internal radiation exposure caused by inhaling or ingesting radioactive materials. That’s because most of the testing equipment is inside the contaminated buildings.

One month into the disaster, government officials ordered the evacuation of five villages outside an exclusion zone, but it wasn’t until well into April it released data on radioactivity for those areas.

At the end of April, Naoto Kan, the Japanese Prime Minister, lost one of his chief scientific advisors, when Toshiso Kosako, a Tokyo University professor, quit in protest at what he called politically expedient decisions to ignore international nuclear safety standards.

For example, when officials in Fukushima prefecture discovered 75% of the region’s school sites had radiation levels above the existing safety standard of one millisievert a year, they upped the standard to 20 millisieverts a year, the maximum annual exposure allowed German nuclear workers.

“The nuclear crisis has certainly undermined already shaky tolerance in Japan of the close ties among business, bureaucrats and political leaders,” said Peter Ennis of the Brookings Institution.

A poll last week by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper showed 73% of respondents “have a low opinion” of the government’s response to the crisis.

Mr. Kan, who is fighting for his political life, has scrapped plans to build 14 new nuclear plants and abandoned an energy policy that sought to have nuclear energy provide 50% of the country’s power by 2050.

Instead, Japan will shift its attention to renewable energy (solar, wind, and biomass) and energy conservation.

But the combination of the Fukushima disaster and emergency inspections of existing nuclear plants has created a new energy crisis — only about a third of the 54 nuclear reactors are operating.

To avoid crippling power shortages, Japan must cut energy consumption by almost 20%.

That could make it difficult for some of its major exporting industries to restart production, Banri Kaieda, the Economy, Trade & Industry Minister warns.

“If the situation continues, there is a danger of Japanese manufacturers taking their facilities overseas,” he said.

Like most Japanese, he blames the utility companies.

“There was a myth of safety, a belief that Japanese nuclear plants are the safest in the world,” he said.

Data released for the first time this week show three of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors probably began spewing radiation within a few hours of Japan’s devastating earthquake and at least one may have gone into a full meltdown within about 15 hours of the tsunami striking the plant and shutting off its cooling systems.

Yet for the first days of the disaster, the plant’s operators and Japan’s nuclear safety regulators studiously avoided using the word “meltdown.” They repeatedly said they believed the reactors’ fuel rods were still intact and safely contained inside their zirconium sheaths.

In reality, the rods in the core of the No. 1 reactor had fully melted by the morning of March 12 and had fallen to the bottom of the reactor’s pressure vessel.

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The documents show the plant’s managers dithered over whether or not to vent the reactor to reduce a build-up of dangerous pressure inside.

When they did decide to act, seven hours after being ordered to do so by the government, they discovered the vent system was inoperable, probably having been damaged in the earthquake, and had to be activated by hand.

By that time, radiation levels in the reactor were so high, volunteers could only spend a few minutes taking turns to crank the vents open.

In the end, the build-up of pressure from steam and explosive hydrogen gas was so great, the reactor exploded, damaging its outer containment walls and spewing radiation into the atmosphere.

A similar pattern of disaster befell the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors. Japanese officials now believe all three reactors may be leaking highly radioactive water outside the containment buildings as a result of damage caused to their pressure vessels by suspected meltdowns.

Most of the 190 tonnes of water being injected every day into the reactors is leaking from the pressure vessels because they are more seriously damaged than previously thought.

“It is a very serious accident and it still continues,” Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday.

When Japan was hit with one of its most devastating earthquakes on March 11, Linda Nakanishi wanted to make sure nobody would forget about it.

The digital artist and painter hopes to make a lasting impression on Canadians by organizing next month’s To Japan with Love art show, a fundraising exhibition of posters by 13 Canadian artists, created to support residents from Japan’s northeastern coast who are still struggling with the aftermath of the high-magnitude quake and the tsunami that followed. (Proceeds from the sales will be donated to the Canadian Red Cross.)

“What happened in Japan isn’t necessarily going to stop once the media stops reporting about it,” Nakanishi says. The Japanese-Canadian artist says it will probably take more than five years to fix the quake’s damage. “Before, horrible images were being shown on these news stations. It’s hard not to have compassion for people in Japan, but very quickly you shift to whatever else is current.”

She says a poster is the perfect way to make sure our minds stay with those in need. “That’s something that will remain on a wall that will always remind you.”

James White is another poster artist who used his creativity to benefit Japan. “I knew I wanted to chip in and help in some way,” he says. “Being on the other side of the world, I felt like my hands were kind of tied, except for using the Internet, using my blog, to get the word out.

“I could have just donated a little bit of money to the Canadian Red Cross and been done with it, but I like doing things that can generate a little bit more visual awareness.”

Nakanishi credits White with being one of the first artists to get his poster out there to grab public attention, with the work already generating about $18,000 from online sales.

“A couple of days after the poster was released, I was getting phone calls and emails and all these other messages from other

Courtesy Linda NakanishiIf a proposed joint fundraiser for the city's mayoral candidates goes forward — organized by a group of political heavy hitters, from former Ontario premier Mike Harris to former Progressive Conservative leader John Tory — it will be a novel event for many Torontonians.
Ralph Lean, one of the city's leading political fundraisers and part of the organizing group, says he is aware of only one similar past event: when Mr. Tory, who lost the 2003 mayoral race to David Miller, co-chaired fundraisers for his two main opponents.
This time, the fundraiser would aim to benefit a larger slate of high-profile candidates, who devoted months to a hard-fought and closely watched campaign that ultimately brought penny-pinching councillor Rob Ford to the mayor's chair amid a wave of suburban voter anger.
<!--more-->"I think [a joint fundraiser] is a great olive branch for the rest of the candidates," said his brother, Doug Ford, to whom a call on the matter was referred. Rob Ford is reportedly saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from the campaign.
"I personally don't think when someone goes to that extent, puts their life on hold to really get involved in public service — they shouldn't be burdened with that cost," said Doug Ford, who himself claimed the Ward 2 seat his brother vacated.
Mr. Lean, who was a member of the Smitherman team, says planning for the proposed joint fundraiser is still at the "embryonic" stage, providing few details about how the event may come together.
"It's as early a stage as you can get. It's the discussion stage. It's very premature," Mr. Lean said on Wednesday, noting he became involved at the behest of Mr. Harris, who is also his law partner. Mr. Lean could not confirm whether George Smitherman, who is on vacation at the moment, would participate. But he acknowledged the general value of such a fundraiser: "Political debts are personal," Mr. Lean said.
A meeting to talk about the joint fundraiser was pulled together on Monday and included representatives from many major campaign teams, said a source familiar with the discussions. The event would likely take place downtown next year, and could include separate dinner and after-party components.
Practical questions arose at the meeting about how funds raised would be allocated, considering the significant number of candidates expected to become involved, the source said.
Besides Mr. Ford, candidates Rocco Rossi, Sarah Thomson and Giorgio Mammoliti are reportedly on board with the concept of a joint fundraiser. Joe Pantalone, however, has rejected the idea, citing the involvement of Mr. Harris— who oversaw unpopular education reforms and massive tax cuts during his tenure as premier — as out of line with his own values.
"I don't think I'd be comfortable having his help paying my debt, since he does not reflect the values that I brought into my election," Mr. Pantalone said, noting he still has about $50,000 in debt after raising close to $900,000 during his campaign. Mr. Pantalone plans to do his own round of fundraising to tackle that debt.
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people from all over the world,” White says, adding that high schools from Korea, Australia and the United States wanted to use his work as an emblem for their own fundraisers.

White believes his poster has been so successful because it’s honest and obvious. He liked the idea of “taking the image of the Japanese rising sun and putting a fissure in it, or a slight crack, obviously to represent an earthquake, but at the same time, trying to get the idea out of: One of us is hurt; one of us needs help.”

Nakanishi’s most popular poster — she made three — shows a lotus flower fighting its way to the surface of the earth. She says the Buddhist flower, which is prevalent in Japanese art, made her think of the strength and resilience the Japanese people embody.

“It grows from the mud — the earth — which is dark and dingy, and then it grows through the waters, which is very challenging,” she says.

“The amount of work it takes for one lotus plant to bloom, it’s like fighting all your odds.”

While the Toronto show won’t begin until May 3, Nakanishi believes it’s the perfect time for a Japan-focused fundraiser. “People might need a bit more re-awareness, especially since there’ve been multiple earthquakes since then — aftershocks — and it’s still very scary,” she says.

To Japan with Love will take place at Toronto’s Function 13 Gallery from May 3-7. For more information, visit tojapanwithlove.ca.

Labour Canada is looking into whether mail from Japan is a “danger” to Canada Post employees, after a Ontario postal officer refused to handle incoming mail from the earthquake-torn country.

The refusal took place about 1 1/2 weeks ago at Mississauga’s Gateway Postal Facility outside of Toronto, after the quake and subsequent tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan.

At that time, the U.S. postal service issued a media release saying that small amounts of radiation had been detected at several of their postal plants with mail arriving from Japan, said the national vice-president of the Customs and Immigration Union, Jason McMichael.

Labour Canada has been investigating for over a week “to decide if examining this mail constitutes a danger,” McMichael said.

The officer, whose name McMichael said he cannot reveal, asked the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) if he could use the radiation detection equipment that he is trained to use and is available on site at the facility, but the CBSA declined his request. As a result, the officer invoked his right under the labour codes to refuse dangerous work.

“The equipment is there, they’re just not being able to use it because the CBSA is counting on Health Canada’s determination that the mail is arriving is safe and that there’s no danger to Canadians who might be handling it,” said McMichael.

“We’re asking the CBSA (to) err on the side of caution and allow us to scan them for radiation,” said McMichael.

He said it is extremely rare for Labour Canada to wait this long, though he said he suspects a decision from Labour Canada will be announced shortly.

An act of God simply happens. The ground shakes. A hurricane howls. A tornado twists and lives and property get tossed asunder, causing heartache and grief.

Random as natural disasters seem there is an order to them; a measure of predictability that allows impacted populations to prepare for the worst, and then get on with their lives afterward.

Americans living in the Gulf Coast states, for example, expect hurricanes. It is part of the environment; a nasty, natural hazard that communities build hurricane proof homes and map out evacuation routes to guard against.

Technological disasters are different. They are not supposed to happen. And then they do, say, when an oil platform explodes and sends 200 million gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, or a nuclear power plant gets overwhelmed by a tsunami in coastal Japan triggering an ongoing crisis with no easy solution and no end in sight.

Technological disasters are a sinister species, and in Japan, the crippled reactor at Fukushima coupled with all that has come before represent a two-fold stress test that could push the nation of stoics past the breaking point.

Dr. Steven Picou is a sociologist at the University of South Alabama. He studies natural and technological disasters, as well as catastrophes, such as a tsunami swamping a nuclear reactor, that are a combination of the two.

“With a natural disaster, in general, you have warning, threat, impact, rescue, inventory, restoration and recovery,” he says. “But for technological disasters, and we have studied them for almost forty years now — from the Exxon Valdez oil spill to toxic waste at Love Canal — we see that recovery doesn’t occur in a timely fashion.

“With the Exxon Valdez we found that real serious community damage, both economically, socially, culturally and mentally, have persisted for 20 years.

“There is no all-clear that ever gets sounded in a technological disaster.”

One of the story lines to emerge in media reports in the aftermath of the tsunami focused on Japan’s stoicism. There were no riots. No looting, just a lot of stiff-upper lips and orderly line-ups at gas stations.

Japanese fictional works dating back 800 years tell of epic falls from grace, of a people being humbled, and handling it. Historical dramas are broadcast on Sundays telling similar tales, while novels with like-minded themes are standard issue on the standardized national curriculum.

“We have many, many stories of people throughout history who have gone through tremendous suffering and these stories are highly valued in Japan,” John Nelson, a professor of East Asian religion at the University of San Francisco, told the National Post in the early days following the disaster.

Stoicism was Japan’s national trait, as Japanese as the rugged individual — who came from nothing and bootstrapped his way to the top — is American. While the raging waters have long receded, the secondary reckoning in Japan is just beginning.

“What is unique about this crisis is that we have, on top of all the other suffering, an ongoing radiation issue,” Akinobu Hata, the director of the Fukushima Mental Health and Welfare Centre, said in a recent interview with the Associated Press.

“We are dealing with an invisible enemy, one that people do not understand well. And that adds to the anxieties people already have.”

Yukio Kudo, a 55-year-old teacher, is one of hundreds of tsunami survivors being housed in a gymnasium near Rikuzentakata. “We are all stressed out here,” he said. “Sometimes I am clearheaded and positive, but other times I’m seized by sadness — and denial that I am now a homeless widower who just had my teenaged son cremated.”

Chronic stress is a killer. Imagine a person holding a glass of water with their arm fully extended for five minutes. Ten minutes. Two days. Eventually they collapse. Now imagine that the glass of water is a dead son and a leaky nuclear reactor.

The Exxon Valdez disaster occurred in 1989. Cordova, AK, was the nearest community. Six years after the oil gushed 20% of commercial fishermen were reporting extreme anxiety, 40% had severe depression and 14% had symptoms of hostility. Divorce, domestic violence and suicide rates all spiked. Even now, 22 years after the spill, the herring and king crab fisheries remain decimated, and the residents are haunted.

Radiation from Japan’s crippled nuclear plant is contaminating the soil, groundwater and seawater around Fukushima. Elevated radiation levels have been detected in Japanese milk and soy products, vegetables and beef.

Several countries have issued bans on Japanese food imports. Japanese shoppers have been buying up bottled water faster than supermarkets can stock it. Ordinary people are worried. The politicians, meanwhile, are moving on. Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, and his cabinet members swapped their blue emergency uniforms for business suits on Friday to symbolize that they are entering the next stage in post-quake operations.

“I have changed to ordinary clothing as the government is now looking towards the next stage of restoration and reconstruction,” said government spokesman Yukio Edano.

Expectant mothers are moving, too, fleeing Fukushima prefecture — and even Tokyo — and driving to hospitals in Osaka hundreds of kilometres to the south to have their babies.

“Now with Japan, they do have a very therapeutic culture,” Dr. Picou says. “And they may be better able to withstand these chronic stresses.

“But pregnant women and young children have been leaving the country. People have been moving far beyond the government recommended evacuation zones around Fukushima. And there is empirical fear, a sense of dread.

“That, to me, indicates a high level of anxiety and of fear and worry, and that somewhat reflects what we have observed for technological disasters in the United States.”

An act of God happens. An Exxon Valdez never should. And when it does, the fallout can be lingering. Japan, with a tsunami, an ongoing nuclear crisis, and so many dead to bury and so many bodies yet to be found, is discovering this now.

And it is awful lesson to bear.

Even for a nation of stoics.

National Post, with files from Reuters

joconnor@nationalpost.com

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/04/02/joe-oconnor-no-all-clear-for-japanese/feed/27stdA man rests on a walking stick surrouned by debris in the devastated town of Rikuzentakata in Iwate prefecture on Mar. 19, eight days after a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit the northeastern coast of Japan's main island of Honshu.Video: Japan’s nuclear crisis explained for kids — in fartshttp://news.nationalpost.com/2011/03/23/video-japans-nuclear-crisis-explained-for-kids-in-farts/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/03/23/video-japans-nuclear-crisis-explained-for-kids-in-farts/#commentsWed, 23 Mar 2011 17:49:01 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=53848[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1aH2-MhEko&w=620&h=379]

“I’ll try to explain what’s going on at the nuclear power plant — in poop and farts.”

With that Twitter message last week, Tokyo-based artist Kazuhiko Hachiya began to explain the situation at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactor in terms any elementary school student could appreciate.

The Fukushima nuclear plant was slammed by the tsunami that followed Japan’s March 11 earthquake. Efforts are still underway to restore power and stabilize one of the reactors which threatens to meltdown.

Mr. Hachiya depicted the reactor as a boy with a stomach ache, radiation from the plant as farts, and the radioactive fuel rods as poop.

“My intention was to allay their fears, and to help elementary school children, their mothers and the elderly get a rough understanding of the situation without using technical jargon,” Mr. Hachiya told The Japan Times.

Mr. Hachiya’s tweets were an instant success and within a day fans made them into a comic and then the above anime video, the newspaper reports.

A very mixed bag of letters about the earthquake-cum-tsunami-cum-nuclear disaster in Japan arrived this week. Most expressed condolences for and solidarity with the Japanese people.

“I have never seen outstanding, organized, efficient and polite people like the Japanese,” wrote Abubakar N. Kasim. “You will never hear them cursing even when things don’t work out in their favour; they always have a genuine smile. I am certain that they will overcome this tragedy stronger than before with their heads high and with dignity and respect — the Japanese style.”

“The Japanese people are strong, resilient and determined, but they will need the help of the rest of the world in rebuilding their shattered buildings and even more so the shattered lives of so many of their people,” added Garth M. Evans. “I trust we have already put our emergency response teams on alert and are preparing to send them.”

But a few letter writers wandered in other, somewhat disturbing directions.

One reader said the earthquake and tsunami are harbingers of things to come. “The last days signs are here as the Word of God has prophesied thousands of years ago,” wrote Nicole Horrelt. “The signs we are seeing now serve as a wake-up call that the tribulation time of judgment is coming, and for all to examine their own walk with God.”
Some took this opportunity to scold the media about our methodology.

“I am thoroughly embarrassed by coverage of the recent Arab revolutions and now, the Japan disasters,” wrote Cleo Davis. “There was a time when major news organizations ran foreign bureaus staffed by real-live journalists. These people lived and worked in the country they reported from. Now our national news stations show us YouTube videos and tweets, things my three-year-old can find. There is no such thing as news anymore. Clearly.”

Yet others had nothing but praise for our coverage.

“Your Thursday story commenting on the extreme hyperbole surrounding the nuclear problems in Japan (‘“Apocalypse” not now; hyperbole is making things worse, pundits say’) deserves a hardy congratulations,” wrote Mel Wilde. “Media sources around the world use every extreme adjective available to excite and confuse the public. Very few have done any homework that would help us understand what is happening. The National Post is the exception in an otherwise lonely landscape cluttered with misinformation. Thank you for a job well done. You have restored my faith in journalism, at least here in Canada.”

One letter writer even questioned the authenticity of some of the photos emerging from this tragedy.

“The National Post’s coverage of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor damage is more thorough and informative than that in either the Globe and Mail or The New York Times,” wrote Elizabeth Cowan. “Your diagrams and maps are especially good. But does anyone else think that the pretty girl posed fetchingly but improbably (given the temperatures in northern Japan at this time of year) in shorts on a pile of rubble [below, right] on the cover of Tuesday’s edition looks [a lot] like the pretty girl posed fetchingly but improbably on a pile of rubble [below, left] on the cover of Monday’s edition? There must be other Japanese residents that Reuters can take photos of.”

Staying with the topic of women in Japan, this view was offered about the people who bravely stayed behind in the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear facility, in an attempt to cool the reactor.

“I have noticed that the feminists are not screeching this time about being ‘under-represented’ in the Fukushima 50,” wrote Anne Prado.

And one more note about those (approximately) 50 men: “After years of media and public overuse of the word ‘hero,’ it has been so severely denigrated that we no longer have one that appropriately describes these individuals,” added Steve Newman.

Lastly, this reader said the media was focusing too much on the human element of the tragedy.

“Coverage of the earthquake in Japan would be more complete if the story included animals, and the attempts to help them by groups on the ground in Japan,” added Roslyn Cassells.

– Last week in this column, I asked if non-gun owners really cared about the gun-control debate. About a dozen non-gun owners answered the call, with their responses evenly split. I also heard from a few people who didn’t match the requested description.

“I’ve been a ‘gunny’ for decades,” wrote Paul Casteels. “I had been into rifles and shotguns for a few years, and was used to the crack of a .22 or the shoulder-kicking feel of a 410 [the smallest gauge of shotgun shell]. Thus, I was unprepared for the wondrous noises and sight replica that cap’n’ball revolvers with gunpowder were capable of. It was a wondrous feeling to hold the power of Zeus in my hands, with the echoing boom that seemingly could be heard for miles around, as the revolver spat forth smoke and sparks and flame. Ah, those were the days, before the [gun] registry.”

There’s a great vacancy at the top of the world: A retreat by the American government from its global leadership role.

From the end of the First World War right up until about a year ago, there could be no gainsaying the predominant role of the United States in the world, the product of its economic and military power, and its active, however spotty, promotion of the core concepts of liberty and democracy. The tired metaphor of the United States as a beacon to the oppressed has been no less true for all its fatigue. Similarly, the style, vigour and continuously innovative broad popular culture of the United States has proved to be a benign contagion to the young of the world, meaning that America also has had an enormous secondary or “soft” influence on the great events and broad currents of an always changing and dangerous globe.

But since the election of Barack Obama, there has been a subtle, un-articulated, but quite definite withdrawal from the United States’ earned stature as a pre-eminent and shaping influence on the key events and forces of our time.

This week, for example, is surely one of the most events-crowded since the terror attacks on the Twin Towers. Japan, a country which after its defeat in the Second World War became both a ward and creature of the United States, till its own full emergence as an economic and political player, is in a ferocious crossfire of crises. The country is economically the third major player on the world stage. Its success, or lack of it, in dealing with the series of threats thrust upon it by the earthquake and tsunami is of vital importance not only to itself, but also to the world’s
economy.

I know the United States is there institutionally. A U.S. aircraft carrier, the Ronald Reagan, was early on the scene. (It’s worth noting how American aircraft carriers are the world’s great first responders: A carrier was the first on the scene in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami as well.) But despite a few words from the White House podium — “Our hearts go out to our friends in Japan and across the region, and we’re going to stand with them as they recover and rebuild from this tragedy” — Barack Obama is not really present in this great tumult of the story. His is not one of the voices reaching the tired, anxious and sorrowing Japanese people.

I cannot imagine a Ronald Reagan being so removed from the pain and distress of a long-time ally. Reagan would have sensed that his role as a president required a dedicated acknowledgement of Japan’s plight, required the right words at the right time from America’s leader. Nations speak the language of empathy to each other through their leadership.

Obama seems to feel that if he nods toward the crisis, gives one of his flat-toned, affectless mini-speeches on it, he’s done his bit, and then it’s off to the more glamorous perks of the job (NCAA picks). He doesn’t seem to understand that the dynamic of large-scale world events require something more, actually and metaphorically, than a nod of “present” from an American president.

This week, Obama announced he’s heading to, among other stops, Rio, where he will deliver a speech on Sunday. And despite some urging him otherwise, suggesting that a trip to Rio doesn’t fit the urgency of the time — what with Japan, Libya and Bahrain all being aflame in different ways — he’s stood firm. Brazil or bust.

Why not the obvious and serious foreign visit the times require? Why not a trip to Tokyo — a gesture of symbolic solidarity with an ally? Evidently, Rio needs him more.

It is ironic that this high celebrity of a president seems more comfortable with acting the celebrity role than being the president. There’s a vacancy at the top of the world. And his name is Obama.

National Post

Rex Murphy offers commentary weekly on CBC TV’s The National, and is host of CBC Radio’s Cross Country Checkup.

AFP / Getty ImagesHiroshima after the atomic attack. Then-prime minister Mackenzie King was relieved the bomb hadn't had to be used on "white people."

Time really does heal all wounds. The outpouring of Canadian sympathy for the Japanese people in the aftermath of the terrible destruction caused by the recent earthquake and tsunami is genuine. A National Post editorial rightly praised the “extraordinary Japanese spirit,” citing tremendous citizen camaraderie and the lack of looting, as compared to what transpired in New Orleans in 2005 after that city was hit by Hurricane Katrina.

Today, Japan is a trusted friend and ally. There are no racist recriminations or gloating declarations over this tragedy. Indeed, such gestures would be considered unspeakable. But 66 years ago, the decision by the United States to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which caused even more devastation and death than the current natural disasters, was hailed in Canada and the United States as just punishment. There were no donations to the Red Cross or offers (initially, at least) to provide financing for rebuilding. Japan was a militaristic empire that had waged a vicious war and, having refused to surrender, got what it deserved.

“By their own cruelty and treachery, our enemies had invited the worst we could do to them,” suggested the New York Times. Most Canadian newspapers were not concerned so much with the number of victims, but instead with this new source of power and what it could mean for the Canadian uranium industry, as well as the potential for the bomb to solve world peace.

Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was more succinct. He shared in the widely accepted vision of Canada as a white man’s country. On Aug. 6, 1945, when he learned about the Hiroshima bombing, he wrote in his diary, “It is fortunate that the use of the bomb should have been upon the Japanese rather than upon the white races of Europe.”

Indeed, for much of the 20th century, few issues frightened the white Anglo-Saxon Canadian majority more than unwanted immigrants from the non-English, non-Christian world. Popular writers, journalists, religious leaders and politicians warned that the country was being occupied by “foreign trash,” “heathens,” “vermin” and “foreign scum.” At the top of the list of undesirables were the Chinese, followed closely by the Japanese. Both groups represented the “un-assimilable Yellow Peril.” Prime minister Wilfrid Laurier explained it like this in a letter of 1899: “I have very little hope of any good coming to this country from Asiatic immigration of any kind.”

Fear about Asians was most acute in British Columbia. In 1907, disgruntled members of the Vancouver Trades and Labour Congress formed the independent Asiatic Exclusion League. Vancouver Liberal MP Robert Macpherson hysterically warned Laurier that the province was “slipping into the hands of Asiatics.” The hatred boiled over on the evening of Sept. 7, 1907. An anti-immigration parade and rally promoted by the Asiatic Exclusion League went out of control. A riot broke out as the white crowd marched into Vancouver’s Chinatown and “Little Tokyo,” smashing windows and destroying property. The Japanese fought back and it took hours for the Vancouver police to quell the violence. Amazingly, no one was killed in the melée, but the property damage was in the thousands of dollars.

Little had changed in British Columbia or in Canadian attitudes when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Using the excuse that the Japanese in B.C. were in danger because “public prejudice” was so strong, the King government ordered the forced evacuation from B.C. of more than 20,000 Japanese, nearly 75% of whom were either naturalized or Canadian citizens (until 1947, still technically British subjects). Japanese-owned property was confiscated, left to deteriorate and then sold for low
prices.

Since then, Canada has apologized for this ordeal and the Japanese community has been properly compensated. Racism has not vanished in Canadian society, but it is not part of mainstream thinking as it once was. And as Japan evolved from a dictatorship to a democracy, Canadian attitudes toward it gradually altered as well — as this latest crisis shows.

National Post

Winnipeg historian and writer Allan Levine’s next book, William Lyon Mackenzie King: A Life Guided By The Hand Of Destiny, will be published in September by Douglas & McIntyre.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/03/19/allan-levine-japan-and-canada-subhuman-enemy-to-ally-in-need-in-70-years/feed/0stdhiroshimaPeter Goodspeed: Economic fallout from Japan will last as long as radiationhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2011/03/18/peter-goodspeed-economic-fallout-from-japan-will-last-as-long-as-radiation/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/03/18/peter-goodspeed-economic-fallout-from-japan-will-last-as-long-as-radiation/#commentsFri, 18 Mar 2011 15:30:06 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=31844

HandoutA photo of blast damage at the No.4 reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The political, economic and strategic implications for Japan’s barrage of natural and nuclear catastrophes may be more obvious than the ultimate resolution of the disasters themselves.

As rescue teams from around the world continue the search for victims of the earthquake and tsunami that crippled Japan last week, nuclear experts are still trying desperately to cope with six potential nuclear meltdowns.

Radiation releases from Japan’s damaged nuclear plants could go on for weeks or months, but the fallout will be much more than mere radioactivity.

The third largest economy in the world has just been devastated and the damage is bound to harm a global recovery already struggling to absorb body blows from higher oil and food prices and severe weather disruptions, ranging from bad winter storms in the United States and Europe and calamitous floods in Australia and Pakistan.

Internationallly, the advocates of nuclear energy have been dealt a staggering blow as Japan’s crisis plunged the world into an emergency rethink of its energy plans.

On Wednesday, China suspended approval for all nuclear power plants and froze the construction of 28 new nuclear reactors, while it rushes to review safety standards. Germany rushed to shut seven nuclear plants that have been in operation since 1980 and the European Union announced plans to test all 143 nuclear power plants in its 27-member countries.

Anti-nuclear protesters in both Canada and the United States are calling for similar moratoriums here.

The overall result will be an increased demand for fossil-fuels, as Japan tries to replace the 30% of its electrical energy it has already lost as a result of the nuclear crisis and other countries slow or stop their search for alternative energy sources

That has already had an impact at the gas pumps. But it also empowers oil-producing countries like Iran, which suddenly finds itself holding the whip hand.

Talk of applying economic sanctions to Iran to slow its drive to develop nuclear weapons may have been drowned out by the screams of terror and anguish in Japan.

The Iranians had already found their intransigent position bolstered by the prospect of civil war in Libya and simmering revolutions in other Arab oil-producing states. Now, they may feel virtually untouchable.

Preliminary estimates of the damage done to Japan’s society and infrastructure have already soared to over $180 billion. But the final accounting will be more than merely monetary.

Recovering from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis may well force Japan to revert to a new isolationist mode in regional politics, yielding the stage to an emerging China.

The sheer costs of rebuilding, in a country already staggering under a national debt that is 200 times larger than the national GDP, will be immense.

It is going to be even harder with an aging and shrinking workforce and a lot less surplus capital.

The first most likely source of reconstruction funds, may come from slashing Japan’s defence budget, while Japanese foreign aid and development funds for other, poorer, Asian nations can also be expected to dry up.

Overall, this week of disaster may be a crucial turning point in Asia’s history. Japan’s loss of life, wealth and confidence is going to reverberate through the region for years to come and will inevitably accelerate China’s rise as a superpower.

Troubled actor Charlie Sheen is bringing his “My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not an Option Show” to Toronto and Vancouver.

The show at Toronto’s Massey Hall is April 14, with tickets priced from $79.50 to $109.50.
The Vancouver show is set for May 2 at Rogers Arena. Tickets for both go on sale Saturday.

Sheen’s erratic behaviour and incoherent public rants got him kicked off the CBS sitcom, Two and a Half Men. The actor has promised that his live show “is where you will hear the real story from the Warlock.”

He’s donating $1 from each ticket to the Red Cross Japanese Earthquake Relief Fund.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/03/18/charlie-sheens-tour-to-stop-in-toronto-vancouver/feed/0std'Optimistic' Jets owner has nothing but praise for Rex Ryan